GOLD-FIELDS NEWS.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 2, Issue 82, 27 July 1868, Page 180

GOLD-FIELDS NEWS.

GOLDFIELDS. 4 ; i-- • 4'.(Tikmes Advertiser, 16th July.)., 4 .. El,iS>®N ; 4 tons ; of stone - -from-/-Heidis - (Cantwell),;and party’s; crushed; at the ' yielded nearly/ five -ouhOesito Ahe ton. ••'/// , s'a. claim of Gully. This claim was bought by the, -present shareholders in June last; before that time it' had been protected bythe ' ''former‘owners, who had never worked it well; but since .it, came into the huuds/ of the present owners, it has . been, vigorously wrought. They have jat present about 40 tons of rich stuff ready for ’ crushing at the machine which;is being erected at the Duke of Edinburgh Claim.. : ■ .The Golden-Fleece Claim is ■ situate ; below Hunt's, on : the Kuranui, and contains four riien’s ground: On Tuesday a . leader 4 was opened in the latter, .which is thought to be one from Hunt’s Claim, and some excellent specimens taken out. The Lucky Hit Claim, Tradesman’s Gully,beyond Nolan’s, has been worked ■five months as a prospectors’ ten men’s ground, .and some 120 tons are in readiness, for machinery. ; Five goldbearing leaders have been opened on the ground, from which stone has been taken. On Friday last some rich special ans of blue quartz were taken out of ‘the main, leader, from which altogether three cwt. of specimen stone has been obtained since it was opened seven weeks ago. 4400 has been paid for. a full share, in the claim this week. The Mount Eden . Claim, Kuranui,

adjoins Hunt’s boundary, and consists of five men’s ground, worked for five months, with no result, until Monday last.’ A drive was commenced on a newly opened leader, containing rnulloch and quartz of a likely looking character. Fifty pounds of mullock and quartz from the leader has been crushed at I Croodali’s Berdan, with a yield of three dwts. of fine rich gold when retorted. The Erin Home, Waiotahi, is a claim of two men’s ground, next the Day Spring; it has been' registered until the commencement of . this month, when the shareholders commenced work again, and have Uncovered a fine leader, eight inches wide where first opened. . The owners expect this claim to pay well when the machine, which is being erected on the Day Spring, is in working order. , The Day Spring, Waiotahi, is a claim of seven men’s ground, and, as

stated in a former notice, has been . worked, for about seven months. A drive has been put in through a reef to a length of 14 feet, but is not yet gone through ; all the quartz taken out of this reef has been proved' goldbearing. We have been «shown some fine specimens, taken out of a.leader, which wus uncovered while excavating for a machine, which the spirited share holders are erecting on their claim. The owners expect to get out about 20 tons of quartz per week when their machine is erected..' There was a small rush to some new ground on Wednesday morning. The ground lies beyond the Tara ru Creek about a, mile and a-half, and has been often tried, but always; pronounced a duffer. In the present case the party was an old hand at prospecting, and* being satisfied?with the appearance of the stone* he had some tested by Mr Wilkes, at Mr T. A. Hicks, in Greystreief. The test was very carefully applied, the silver being.re tor ted before using it for the new stuff. The result was/half a grain to a grain of gold to seven : (7) ounces of the stone. The report; having got out, a large number pf men went and pegged off the ground. HOKIANGA. • The New Zealand Herald, July 14, ' / says A few days ago we mentioned the fact, of gold ha ving been discovered at Hokianga. . The specimen then brought to town had been found in the Wanga'pe River. / By the arrival of the sciiooner; Tauranga' from .the Bay of Islands ;lasi;, evening we learn from ■ good- authority that a most splendid water worn ■ specimen of auriferous stream.;,/ Tlie ) specimen : 1 Is /.aboutan inch;andahalf':iu'/diameter,andis calculated;tO'contain ; ahout three s ozs; of 5 gold.. The news was brought by - arrived m Russell

from Hokianga on Saturday last .He also stated that silver had been disebvered id the same locality. .. RAHGARIRI. The. New Zealand Herald;, July 15, says, that some very excellent: specimens of gpld;bearihg quartz have been received in. town from Rangariri. The gold can be'plainly seen without the aid of a glass, and although the stone is perhaps not what would be considered by any means firstrate at the Thames, yet we may safely say that there cannot be the slightest doubt of a payable goldfield being discovered in that neighborhood. The parties who sent down the stone, express; Very sanguine hopes as to the ultimate success of their efforts.

WAIROA. We take the following from the New Zealand Herald, July 15 : —Capt. Salmon upon whose land the gold-bearing quartz has been discovered, and the result of which appeared in our issue of .Monday last, arrived in Auckland from his farm on Monday evening, and we are pleased to hear from gentlemen with whom he has been conversing that his prospecting has turned out better than he expected. Captain Salmon states that at a depth of 6 feet from the surface, rich quartz, iu which the gold was plainly to be seen by the naked eye, was found, and he believes after the course of a week preparations will be completed to enable a large number of miners to commence work on reasonable terms. We hear that Mr. Heale is also engaged prospecting, and very favorable indications of goldbearing quartz have been discovered. The cutter Rapid arrived last night from 'Wairoa with 1 cwt. of quartz on board, to be tested in Auckland. MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. By the arrival of a party of West Coast diggers on Saturday evening from Shortland, we learn that another party had returned to that, place from prospecting into the interior 45 miles up, and that they had discovered some rich beds of alluvial gold. They were, however, driven back by the Maoris, and unable to continue their search. They, speak well of the country, aud predict a bright field for future operations.— New Zealand Herald, July 14.

Shaw’s Reef, Kuranui, has been recently turning out some very fine specimens. A month ago a full share could have been obtained for a moderate price, but now a long price has been declined. This claim is worked by Messrs. J. Shaw & Co.—lbid. Upwards of 150 diggers arrived yesterday for the Thames goldfield by the s.s. Airedale, s.s.- Wellington, and schooner Success. Another batch may be expected in a few days by the s.s. John Penn.—lbid.

A parcel of eight ounces of gold worth £3 15s. per oz. was brought-to the Bank of New Zealand last week. The gold was water-worn and entirely free from quartz, a clean sample of alluvial gold, some of the pieces weighing from | to \ an ounce each. —Ibid. -The “young lady” of the bar at one . of the Shortland hotels had . a crushing one day last week of thd specimens given, to her from time to time by the frequenters of the hotel. The result, we are informed, was .£BO worth ’of gold.—lbid.

As another instance of the immense wealth of this district, we learn that a short time since a gentleman named Creagb, who is largely - interested in the goldfield, sold a full/share for the sum of ,£I6OO, for which claim he had but a few weeks previously paid £25. —lbid,

The Thames goldfield is still viewed with a great amount of suspicion, in Sydney and the other, colonies (says a correspondent), many believing it to be a mere ‘‘ duffer’* puffed up by interested parties. The time has now come when Auckland can afford to treat such scepticism as it deserves. The Thames has began and .will, continue to make itself felt as a great reality* notwithstanding the prejudice and, suspicion it has had to contend Ibid:

As a proof that the Thames Goldfield is , beginning to create some attentionvin;Sydney, we.learn I from: our late Sydney files to hand that the schooner Hanmah • Newton/';was ip' :s ‘leiaVe • there passiengers/jaud a.quaatitypfinachiqery^

which is to be erected at the Thames for gold-mining News, July 15. "•' lt : . Mr/Bartlett, of the ElDorado claim, on- the Moanatairi Creek, Thames, brought to our office, to day, a very rich.-specimen of quartz, taken from that claim. The specimen, which/was taken from a leader said to be six feet wide, was a couple of inches in diameter, or rather more, and was literally covered with gold.—July 17. The assayer of the Bank of New Zealand was engaged to-day in testing another sample of quartz from .the Wairoa (Hauraki). The result is almost precisely the same as on the for mer occasion— i 2dwts. > Bgrs., or slightly less, per ton.—lbid. A sample of quartz was brought down to Shortland from Puriri on Tuesday, from the Golden Crown Reef, to be tested. The assay return given by the Union Bank was 4ozs. I3dwt to the ton. The only thing that is wanted to develope the country is machinery.—Southern Cross, July 17.